October 26-28, 2015
Austin, Texas In this new era of automation, it is more important than ever before to ensure that the right systems and the right people are in place. Summit Info

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You know you're a digital marketer when...

When iMedia asked me to take up this topic, I had a couple of concerns. The first was that I would be treading the well-trodden path laid by hayseed comedian Jeff Foxworthy, whose "You might be a redneck if..." schtick has remained lodged in our cultural digestive tract like a stack of flapjacks for the last couple decades, and I have no desire to run afoul of what I imagine to be his army of suspender-stretching, drawling copyright attorneys. My second concern was that by voicing concern No. 1, I might be outing myself as a fan, by the same grade-school lunch-room logic that answers "This tastes like crap" with "How do you know what crap tastes like?"

But then I realized that this dilemma had conveniently spun up for me my first "You know"-ism, and now I'm off to the races:

You know you're a digital marketer when it's not copyright infringement; it's a meme.

Many of us never met a bandwagon we didn't want to jump on, and there is no surer bandwagon than a hot meme -- provided you manage to jump on before it arrives at Triteville or Beentheredonethatburg (see Microsoft's sad co-opting of the Double Rainbow Guy as Exhibit A). There are now talent agencies set up for the specific purpose of making sure everybody in the meme-to-sellout food chain -- including, presumably, the copyright lawyers -- get paid. And if you're enterprising enough to represent the fickle interests of Grumpy Cat in a boardroom full of Hollywood suits, then I say more power to you.

Should digital marketers be making such flagrant use of memes? I am compelled to answer in the form of a meme: